Deuteronomy 4:9

9 1"Only take care, and 2keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. 3Make them known to your children and your children's children--

Deuteronomy 4:9 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 4:9

Only take heed to thyself
To walk according to this law, and not swerve from it:

and keep thy soul diligently;
from the transgressions and breaches of it:

lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen;
either the statutes and judgments set before them, and the circumstances of the delivery of them; or the punishment inflicted on the breakers of them; or the favours bestowed on those that observed them:

and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life;
out of thy mind and memory, and have no place in thy affections, through a neglect and disuse of them:

but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons;
their children and grandchildren, that they may be trained up in them in their youth, and so not depart from them when grown up, and in years; see ( Deuteronomy 6:7 ) .

Deuteronomy 4:9 In-Context

7 For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?
8 And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?
9 "Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children--
10 how on the day that you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, the LORD said to me, 'Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.'
11 And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom.

Cross References 3

  • 1. ver. 23
  • 2. [Proverbs 4:23]
  • 3. Deuteronomy 6:7; Deuteronomy 11:19; Deuteronomy 32:46; Genesis 18:19; See Psalms 78:4-6
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.